DULUTH – Before it was all over, Minnesota Gophers star Taylor Heise offered teammates some well-received words of encouragement. And, admittedly, a few bits of profanity slipped in as well.
It was the third period of the NCAA Frozen Four semifinals at Amsoil Arena on Friday night, and after leading most of the game via Heise’s 30th goal of the season, two scores in less than a minute by the Wisconsin Badgers had Minnesota on the short side of the scoreboard, with under 10 minutes to go in regulation.
During a stoppage in the play, Heise called for a football-style huddle of the Gophers on the ice. Immediately, she thought of her future, and the futures of her teammates.
“I just said ‘Don’t give up.’ I know I have hockey in my future, and it’s a hard thing to turn around if you don’t. I know a lot of the girls in that group do not, so I told them, ‘Guys, you can’t give up. At the end of the day if you give your full tank out there and do everything you can, we can’t hang our heads about anything,’” she recalled, an hour or so after the Gophers had rallied to tie, only to fall in overtime. And Heise admitted that in the heat of the moment, parts of her speech may have been R-rated.
“Honestly, there were probably some swear words in there, but it was a time for me to be able to say, ‘Let’s do it. We can do this, we’re a really good team and let’s go out there and prove it.’”
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The Gophers, ranked atop the national polls for part of the season, and winners of the WCHA tournament, did just that, drawing even with their goalie on the bench, when a Madeline Wethington shot caught a fortunate deflection near the Badgers crease and found the back of the net, forcing overtime. There, the Badgers prevailed on the way to their seventh NCAA title, but Heise said the Gophers’ unwavering faith in themselves made a difference.
“I believed in us from the beginning, but getting to 2-2 at the end, that belief went even higher,” she said, before getting some post-game dinner with family, and having a subdued celebration of her 23rd birthday. “Overtime, it’s the luck of bounces.”
.. so I told them, ‘Guys, you can’t give up. At the end of the day if you give your full tank out there and do everything you can, we can’t hang our heads about anything,'
After Heise’s goal early in the game, she nearly made it 2-0 on a lopsided rush to the net later, only to be thwarted by the Badgers goalie. It was fairly typical “lead by example” stuff for the former Ms. Hockey winner from Lake City, Minn., who had gotten the Patty Kazmaier Award – given to the top player in women’s college hockey – a year earlier.
With Heise’s early offense versus the Badgers, teammate Gracie Ostertag said the Gophers were all expecting, “Patty with the hatty,” before it was all done. Heise laughed at that prediction, and revealed that her nickname was in place long before she won the game’s top individual award, which has that same name.
“My mother is funny. I have a moped, and it’s green. And because I was born on St. Patrick’s Day, she told me to name it Patty,” Heise revealed. “That was even before last year. So I guess it’s just been in the business.”
Two years ago, Heise was left off the Olympic roster. She responded to that perceived slight by becoming college hockey’s top player in 2022, and grabbing MVP honors at last summer’s Women’s World Championships. Tryouts for the 2023 Team USA roster start next week in Blaine, and this time, Heise has little doubts that she will be on the squad headed to Ontario in search of gold.
“I’ll be at Worlds in two weeks,” she said, matter-of-factly. “After that, I don’t know yet.”
As for the bitter end, it was fading into the rear view mirror already when Heise spoke, her hair still wet from the postgame showers. There would be plenty of time to process how abruptly the college career of one of the all-time great Gophers concluded. But in the immediate wake, she was left feeling thankful.
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“Just really grateful to be part of this group,” Heise said. “I think we did something special and obviously didn’t get some of the bounces. But I’m still really proud of everyone and how we did, for sure.”
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